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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25590376">one way or another they end up eating ice cream</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cottagecatlikescabbage/pseuds/cottagecatlikescabbage'>cottagecatlikescabbage</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Check Please! (Webcomic)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>First Dates, First Kiss, Jack wen't to a different college au, M/M, Mutual Pining, NHL Player Jack Zimmermann, Slow Burn, bakeshop AU, but subtle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:00:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,221</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25590376</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cottagecatlikescabbage/pseuds/cottagecatlikescabbage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Slice of Life, Pies, a call, and a date.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann, Implied Alexei "Tater" Mashkov/Kent "Parse" Parson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>64</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Jack Zimmermann Turns 30!</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>one way or another they end up eating ice cream</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you so much for my beta readers! im_not_shouting_im_projecting and birds89birds. Constructive criticism is welcome (I kinda need it :&gt;)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There’s this quaint little bakeshop Jack goes to every other day. They serve great pies, coffee, and amazing brunch choices from the diner beside it. One could say that Jack came in for the food, but stayed for one of the staff. The first time Jack laid eyes on Eric, he told himself, no, he can’t be attracted to this shorter boy with a cute southern drawl. Jack has come to meet the staff during his adventure into the bakeshop trying anything they serve new that morning. He celebrated his birthday a couple of days ago with his team and family, food catered by the diner owned by the same person as the bakeshop, great food. Nate, the Falc’s trainer, hated how Eric’s pies disrupted his food plan for the team but he couldn’t do anything about it after the first time he’s been fed with the bakeshop’s pies on Jack’s birthday. He turned 30 but today won’t be anything different.</p><p>“Hey! Welcome back!” Eric said smiling at Jack.</p><p>Jack smiled back at Eric.</p><p>“Coming for more pies?” Lardo said </p><p>Jack laughs at that. “Yeah, compliments to the baker,” he said looking at Eric.</p><p>“I know right?” She said “this cutie right here makes the most amazing pies in town”</p><p>She gets an elbow from Eric. “Please ignore her,” he says to Jack, then to Lardo “go away”</p><p>“If you wanted to be alone-”</p><p>“Shut up! go away” Eric whispers to Lardo. Jack takes in the entirety of the cafe. Eric turns to Jack “What pies do you need?”</p><p>“Oh, here,” Jack says as he passes his phone towards Eric who accepts it.</p><p>“Blueberry, pecan and lemon meringue,” he says as he exhales. “Family coming over?”</p><p>“No, my teammates. They’re coming over”</p><p>“Oh, that’s nice.”</p><p>“Yeah, they really liked the mini pies from earlier”</p><p>“Did you?”</p><p>“Yeah. I did” Jack smiles at Eric.</p><p>“I’m just gonna go ahead and fill the boxes for these”</p><p>“Sure”</p><p> Jack moves towards the chair off to the side of the counter. There was a companionable silence as Eric worked the background placing pies in separate boxes and into a big bag. </p><p>“Do you like coconuts?” Eric asks as he finishes boxing the third pie. Jack stands up and walks towards the register</p><p>“I do, Yeah.”</p><p>“Good, then I’ve got just the thing” Eric turns to take a box from behind him and crouches to take a pie from the rack of pies they are displaying.</p><p>“How come I never see you around, during the weekdays,” Jack asks</p><p>“Oh, I've got classes.”</p><p>“Classes huh, what are you taking?”</p><p>“Taking? Oh no, I already graduated college, I teach”</p><p>Jack feels the embarrassment from his chest to cheeks “Oh, uh, What do you teach?”</p><p>“You probably never see me” Eric starts “but I teach the figure skating class about an hour before you guys come in for your practice.”</p><p>“Really?” Jack watches as Eric places the paper bag with his pies and he grabs a couple of bills from his wallet and passes it to Eric.</p><p>“This is too much” Eric takes the extra bill out of the bunch and passes it back to Jack “here”</p><p>“But for the fourth pie, the coconut one?” </p><p>“It’s on the house, a belated birthday gift,” Eric says with a smile on his face. Jack thinks that he's only imagining the blush on Eric’s face.</p><p>“Oh, thanks,” Jack said before hesitantly taking the bill out of Eric’s hands. Their fingers brush for a moment, and Eric’s hand is so smooth and soft. Jack doesn’t know how to deal with that, he places the thought on the side of his head. “I better go, my friends, are probably home.”</p><p>Jack starts to walk away but Eric stops him “Uh, you sure you don’t want to throw your name and number in the bowl? The winner gets free pies, or breakfast” Eric smiled at Jack, his cheeks a little bit red.</p><p>“How about a free dinner on me?” Jack asks, keeping eye contact with Eric then he takes a card from the box on the counter and writes his name and number on the paper before dropping one and walks towards the door.</p><p>Jack hadn’t thought about what had happened afterward as they had an away game against the Cows that weekend. It was after the game and in his car when he saw the voice message left by an unknown number who he was sure belonged to Eric from the cafe. He opens the voice mail</p><p>It starts as a whisper “I am by far into my 15th Jack in the bowl, I didn’t know so many Jacks lived in Providence, so there’s that.” Eric paused “Yeah hi!, this is Eric from Annie’s Bakeshop and we’re calling to inform that you won-”</p><p>The call had been cut as the limited time on Jack’s voice message was consumed, but Jack could not help but smile as he pressed the play button again to listen to Eric’s voice. It’s already late into the night for Eric back in Providence, and the team is flying back there, Sunday to get back to training and have their next game on Wednesday.</p><p>Jack sleeps that night, happy about their win, and excited about calling Eric the next day. Jack woke to the sound of knocking on his door</p><p>“Uppity up Zimmbonni! I got you breakfast” Jack groans as he hears Tater’s voice. But grateful that his best friend got him breakfast. Jack groggily puts on his pajamas before walking towards his door to accept Tater’s gift.</p><p>“Good morning Zimmbonni!” Tater says cheerily as he beams at his groggy best friend. “I have bagels and coffee for you and me. George says we fly back home later, pack your things” he said</p><p>“Thanks, man,” Jack said and Tater nods in acknowledgment before walking away and towards his room. Jack moves around his room with the bagel in his mouth, picking the pile of clothes he wore yesterday and folding them before placing them in his used-clothes bag. The flight back to Providence was uneventful. The guys just banter. Jack seated beside Tater, as always.</p><p>“You asked Cafe guy?” Tater asks. Jack remembers that he is supposed to call Eric back to confirm that he got his number. He’ll just call him back when they land. </p><p>“I kind of did, two days ago. Then he called last night, during the game and left me a message instead.”</p><p>“What did you do?”</p><p>“I haven’t called him back yet. I’m going to when we land.” Jack says. </p><p>“Good for you Jack.” Tater lets the words hang in the air, looking as if he’s thinking about what to tell Jack but he doesn’t say anything.</p><p>“Something wrong big guy?” Jack said fully looking at Tater</p><p>“Nothing, only thinking” Jack doesn’t ask whatever was eating at Tater’s mind. Tater is the most approachable and open book to the team, but they also know when not to pry the thoughts of the big man. They landed a couple of hours later, the press welcoming them from their win. After the short presser, Jack went back home to his apartment, glad that the guys went home on their apartments and not crash at one of their teammate’s houses to play games until they all fall asleep. They did plan to go out later that night for a couple of drinks at their local pub. </p><p>Jack takes his phone out of his pocket and looks for Eric’s voice message, listens to it before pressing dialing Eric’s number. It takes a couple of rings before someone’s gruff voice answers</p><p>“Hello? Who’s this”</p><p>“Oh, uh, this is Jack Zimmermann? Is Eric there?”</p><p>“Jack, the Jack Zimmermann is Calling Bitty’s phone” the owner of the voice whispers before shouting “Bitty! Jack Zimmermann is calling your phone!”</p><p>“Who?” Someone calls from afar </p><p>“Jack Zimmermann! The guy who you were cheering for last night” There was a shuffle on the other side of the line, a whispered argument and then Eric’s voice filtered through the speakers of Jack’s phone.</p><p>“Hi! I’m really sorry about that. That was my roommate- shut it Chowder! Or else” Eric paused “again, I’m so sorry about that”</p><p>“Oh, that’s okay, it was quite fun to listen to” Jack hears a door close on the other side. He walks towards his balcony view, looking at the city lights thinking about Eric. </p><p>“I reached your number”</p><p>Jack chuckles at that. “Yeah, you also left a half-finished voice message. The first part of you rambling about how I’m the 15th Jack you’ve called”</p><p>“I’m really sorry about that, I also kinda thought you gave me a wrong number to keep me from calling you,” Eric said jokingly they both laughed a little at that before Jack spoke</p><p>“You know I won’t do that right?”</p><p>“Of course,” Eric said</p><p>“So uh, Eric-”</p><p>“Bitty”</p><p>“What”</p><p>“Please call me Bitty”</p><p>“Oh, so, Er- Bitty, do I still get to buy you dinner? You did give me the 15th call”</p><p>“Isn’t that why you dropped your number and why I shuffled through the bowl to look for a Jack?”</p><p>Jack can’t help but smile. “So, uh, what do you think of 7 pm tomorrow,” He asks</p><p>“7 pm sounds good.”</p><p>“Anything you wanted to do lately?”</p><p>“I can’t think of any.”</p><p>“Yeah?” Jack can hear Eric’s smile on the other end of the call</p><p>“We can just eat somewhere,” Eric said before giggling a little bit. Jack leaned on the door frame listening to Eric.</p><p>“Yeah? It’s a date then,” Jack asks, feeling a blush creep towards his cheeks. He hopes it doesn’t translate well into the call.</p><p>“See you tomorrow Mr. Zimmermann”</p><p>“I’ll see you then, Mr. uh, Bitty” Jack said and can hear Eric laugh on the other side</p><p>“Bye Jack,” Eric said with a smile before ending the call, not waiting for Jack to say something back.</p><p>Jack walked back towards his couch and dropped face first before turning and looking at his ceilings and smiling thinking about Eric and how their dinner date will go. </p><p>The next day, during practice Jack informed Tater about his plans for the night.</p><p>“Really? Good for you, Jack!” Tater exclaimed, “I’m happy for you! Long time since last date!”</p><p>“Thanks, Tater,” Jack blushed looking down at the ice “how about you? I haven’t seen you with someone for a long time since Snowy”</p><p>Tater and Dustin’s relationship was more of an experiment for them both. They both loved each other, but in the end, they both realized that they weren’t meant to be together in a romantic relationship. </p><p>“I have someone,” Tater said</p><p>“Someone, eh?” Jack keeps a smirk to himself. When Tater remained silent Jack asked “You guys serious?”</p><p>“I think so,” Tater said barely above a whisper, like a secret he kept to himself for so long, he doesn’t know how to deal with it saying it out loud.</p><p>“Good for you, man.” Jack. “Who is it?”</p><p>“Kenny,” Tater said, again a whisper</p><p>“Kenny? Kent Parson?”</p><p>“Yeah” If Jack is an empath he would say that the moment Tater said ‘yeah’ he felt his best friend’s happiness thinking about the captain of the aces.</p><p>“I’m happy for you, man,” Jack said, lightly shaking Tater’s shoulder who smiled at Jack.</p><p>Tater beams at Jack before grabbing him into a bear hug, and then the Coach’s whistle rang and their line was once again called to the ice. After practice, Jack spent the afternoon making reservations for him and Eric at the Caravelle, a restaurant owned by his friends once when he was still in college. By the time he arrived at the address Eric sent Jack, he was giddy with excitement. And when the door opened to reveal Eric in a navy blue jacket, complimenting Jack’s own. Eric looked beautiful to Jack’s eyes. </p><p>“Hi.” Eric starts.</p><p>“Hi,” Jack said breathy as it is, it made Eric laugh, that was enough to make Jack smile and weak in the knees “you look amazing”</p><p>Eric smiled “Thank you, Jack, you don’t look too shabby yourself” </p><p>“Shall we go?” Jack said after they both shared a chuckle, offering his hand and motioning to his car and Eric smiled.</p><p>“Yeah, let’s go” Eric takes Jack’s hands and they walk off towards Jack’s car when they hear someone holler from behind</p><p>“Get him home by 10, Zimmermann!” They both look back to see Chowder trying to look as menacing as he can. Jack just smiled at him and winked </p><p>“I’ll see to that Mr. Bitty,” Jack said smiling before looking back to Eric who smiled at him before looking back towards the dude on the door “I’ll be home by then Chowder, food is in the fridge if you get hungry”</p><p>Chowder only smiles at them both before waving at them and walking back inside closing the doors behind him. Jack, ever the gentleman and trying to impress his muse, opens his door for him which Eric smiles at. On the way towards the Caravelle, they made small talk.</p><p>“So that was Chowder huh?”</p><p>“Yeah. he’s a pretty good goalie.”</p><p>“Yeah? Where does he play?”</p><p>“He’s still in the minor league, the San Jose Barracuda, It’s his dream team,” Eric said, a look of nostalgia and pride passes on his face. Jack considers himself lucky to see that, even only a passing glance and with his peripheral. “He was my Junior back in college at Samwell”</p><p>“Really? Samwell huh. That’s cool, they’re turning up pretty good players”</p><p>To this Eric laughs “I like to think I helped get them there”</p><p>“Why?” Jack laughs with Eric but he doesn’t quite understand</p><p>“I used to cook for them, all the time, they used to come into the campus dorms just to drag me to their house outside campus just to make me cook and then they’d tell me to move in with them to cook” They both laugh at that. The drive only took 10 more minutes before arriving at the restaurant.</p><p>During their dinner, they talked about all things, where Eric lived, his life in Georgia. And in turn, Jack shared that he is a dual citizen and that he was born in Philadelphia before his family brought him back to Canada. People noticed Jack but were polite enough to notice that he is out with his beau on a lovely evening in Providence. After dinner, both still had an hour before Chowder’s declared curfew for both of them. On the way out Jack held Eric’s hand while looking at Eric, the glow of the restaurant’s logo casting a glow behind him. Eric looks handsome anywhere, Jack thinks. “Do you think I can still get you to go get ice cream with me?” Jack asks looking into Eric’s eyes.</p><p>“Ice cream does sound nice” Eric nods and smiles as he tiptoes and pecks Jack on the cheeks. Jack holds Eric’s hands as they walk off towards an Ice cream parlor they both love and where they actually first passed each other, Eric dropping Jack’s ice cream on his shirt as he rushed towards the car waiting for him, Eric frantically apologizing while running away from Jack left in shock. The place was near empty but the owner was still there, smiling at them.</p><p>“Eric! Jack! I hoped you’d come around” says John Johnson. Jack and Eric looked at each other, the door closing behind them. Johnson’s weird that way, but he makes the meanest ice cream around.</p><p>“Do you know everybody in town Johnson?” Eric asks.</p><p>“I know my most loyal ones,” Johnson said, winking at Eric, waving his scoop at them. “Lovely night isn’t it?” he adds</p><p>“Yeah. we’re looking for something to eat to enjoy the night” Jack said, “what do you have for us, John?”</p><p>“Name it Jack, I’ll make it happen,” Johnson says grinning at him </p><p>“I’ll just have my usual,”</p><p>“Same for me John,” Eric said </p><p>“Going for the usual even for something as special as your date?” John looked at them both.</p><p>“I guess so,” Jack said looking fondly at Eric.</p><p>“Alright, one mint chocolate chip and vanilla for the both of you,” Johnson moved quietly behind the glass pane that separates the customer from the ice cream.</p><p>John Johnson was silent as he scooped ice cream into bowls for them.</p><p>“Oh. We thought to eat that while walking back to Jack’s car, John. It’s closing time for you”</p><p>“No, it’s alright,” John said “Time is relative anyway. Plus, I like to collect stories of how people fell in love with each other while eating my ice cream.” he added and the three of them laughed lightly.</p><p>They chose to sit on the table close to the glass pane, looking out onto the park, the nightlife still thriving, couples walking hand in hand, some were also sitting talking to themselves. “Are you busy this Saturday?” Jack asked</p><p>“I don’t know,”</p><p>“We have a game against the Chickens, I want you to come,”</p><p>“Me?”</p><p>“And Chowder, if you want to take him” Jack added quickly</p><p>Eric smiled at Jack “Yeah. I’d like to.”</p><p>Jack smiled at Eric before returning to eating his ice cream. </p><p>“I have an exhibit skate on the 26th” Eric said</p><p>“Oh?” </p><p>“It’s nothing much. Just a presentation for our org. We try to encourage kids to show kids that figure skating is fun”</p><p>“That sounds neat”</p><p>“It is. So, will you come? You can also bring a friend”</p><p>“Yeah, I'll be there,” Jack said, looking at Eric with a smile. </p><p>They might have exceeded Chowder’s curfew, but it was time well spent and Chowder understands. They both thanked John Johnson for letting them eat and enjoy each other’s company in his cafe. The ride going back to Eric’s house was silent, a good one, Jack’s right hand entwined with Eric’s from his leg to the console between them. The music slowly playing in the background, the passing lights of cars that swept past them. Jack slowed down to a stop when the reached Eric’s lawn.</p><p>“Tonight was nice,” Eric said “Thank you,” he added, grabbing Jack’s right hand.</p><p>“Thank you, too.” Jack paused “for giving me this chance” tracing small circles with his thumb on the back of Eric’s hand </p><p>“I’ll see you this Saturday then,”</p><p>“Yeah, and then on the 26th”</p><p>“Yeah, on the 26th, or the next time we do this” Eric said, feeling himself blush at the thought of a second date.</p><p>Jack’s smile widens “Yeah. Definitely.” he paused “can I kiss you?” he whispered.</p><p>Eric gave him a soft smile before nodding. There was a moment’s hesitation before Jack leaned to kiss Eric. It was short and soft, but endearing nonetheless. It was Jack who pulled back first.</p><p>“I should go,” Jack said, a whisper.</p><p>“I should also get in,” they both shared a peal of soft laughter before Jack backed away.</p><p>“Good night Jack,” Eric said, backing towards the door, cheeks tinted, before turning and walking inside, sparing Jack a small look in between the crack of the door then fully closing it.</p><p>Jack smiled to himself before turning away from the house and walked towards his car. Warm fuzzy feeling in his chest, looking forward to their second date, the game, and Eric’s exhibit.</p>
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